§ MR. HOWARD VINCENT (Sheffield, Central)asked the Vice President of the Committee of Council on Education. What other specific subjects other than algebra, Euclid and mensuration, mechanics, chemistry, physics, animal physiology, botany, principles of agriculture, Latin, French, and domestic economy are sanctioned by the Department, as entitling a school to a grant of 4.s. in respect of each passed scholar; why book-keeping, commercial correspondence, epistolary style, English composition, commercial history, commercial geography, shorthand, or German are not enumerated; how many schools in Great Britain provided last year a graduated scheme of teaching approved by the Inspector in any of such last-named subjects, and which of them; how many scholars in Great Britain were submitted last year for examination in each such subject, and how many earned the grant; and, if it is possible to add these commercial subjects, or some of them, to the list given in Clause 15 of the Education Code of 1887, with a view to directing the studies of the senior classes of Board Schools into a practical channel?
§ THE VICE PEESIDENT (Sir WILLIAM HART DYKE) (Kent, Dartford)If my hon. Friend will refer to the answer given to the hon. Member for Merioneth (Mr. T. E. Ellis) on the 17th of March he will see what specific subjects other than those mentioned in Article 15 of the Code have, from time to time, been sanctioned by the Department. They include book-keeping and German; while English composition and epistolary style form part of the ordinary course of instruction in the upper Standards, and commercial history and geography are necessarily taught whenever history and geography are taken as class subjects. I have not the detailed information asked for in the third and fourth parts of the Question; but I can assure my hon. Friond that any suitable scheme of teaching subjects important to those likely to be engaged in commerce will meet with every encouragement from the Department, and if such subjects were adopted to any extent the results would 1453 be separately tabulated in the General Report.